The store is being rebranded as the Area 51 Alien Travel Center and will feature its own line of merchandise emblazoned with little green men and women.

It's all an attempt to cash in on the property's location just south of the federal installation formerly known as the Nevada Test Site -- though nowhere near the actual Area 51.

Hof, whose Moonlite Bunny Ranch east of Carson City is the setting for a long-running HBO reality show, expanded his adult empire into Southern Nevada last year when he bought Richards' two brothel properties in the tiny town of Crystal, north of Pahrump.

With his latest acquisition, Hof now holds five brothel licenses, the most ever by a single owner. He hopes to add one or two more in the near future.

"Unless they're married, I don't want anyone in Nevada having sex unless I get a cut of the money," he said with a laugh.

Only one of Hof's two brothels in Crystal is open for business. The other is still awaiting a face-lift, but that work is on hold until Hof and Fleiss can find a cable network -- possibly Cinemax -- willing to turn the renovation into a reality show.

The Alien Cathouse is expected to open for business in a month or two, after Hof and Fleiss oversee the complete transformation of the old bordello, which he described as a "disgusting, terrible place" without a single window.

All the rooms at the new place will be spacious suites, Hof said.

Nye County officials have issued him a temporary brothel license while he undergoes a routine background check.

"They just did this 14 months ago," Hof said. "The only change is I made $2 million. I can't see the problem there."

He said this is the first time the county has issued a temporary license, but it made sense in this case because of Hof's recent background check and his clean operating record.

"He is in a very unique position," DeMeo said of Hof.

Nevada is the only state that allows houses of prostitution. About two dozen licensed brothels operate in seven rural counties. Three other counties allow them but don't have any right now.

Prostitution is illegal in the state's population centers of Clark and Washoe counties.

Hof's alien theme is already well past the probing stage, but important details -- whether the working women will be painted green, for example -- are still being decided.

When Hof talks about the idea, it comes out sounding like a series of bumper-sticker slogans: "Sex from another planet" and "Alien Cathouse girls do it different," to name a few.

He did confirm one thing: There will be alien costumes made for employees at the travel center and the women in the brothel.

It's unclear whether the costumes will be for everyday use or for promotional events and special occasions.

Hof's plans are already getting rave reviews from at least one industry expert.

George Flint is a Reno wedding chapel owner who lobbies on behalf of Nevada's licensed brothels. He thinks a brothel with a space alien theme is a great idea, and he thinks Hof might be just the guy to pull it off at a time when most Nevada brothels are barely scraping by.

Flint used to dislike the self-anointed "pimp-master general" and his headline-grabbing antics, but he has developed a new respect for Hof.

"There are times he still scares my diaper off," Flint said, "but he has a stamina that's hard for me to believe."

EX-BROTHEL OWNER SET TO PEN BOOK ABOUT HIS LIFE After a controversial run lasting roughly four decades, Nye County brothel owner Maynard "Joe" Richards has quietly withdrawn from the legal sex trade. Don't bother asking; the famously reclusive and prickly brothel owner doesn't want to talk about it. When reached for comment at the strip club he still owns in Pahrump, the 78-year-old said he is writing a book, so people who want to know about his life can read about it there. Richards recently sold his Cherry Patch 2 bordello, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas on U.S. Highway 95, to brothel mogul Dennis Hof, who plans to make it over in an outer-space theme. Richards sold his other two Nye County brothels to Hof in 2010. At one time, it looked like Richards might be forced out of the business. He was indicted in 2006 on two felony counts of federal wire fraud after he paid then-Nye County Commissioner Candice Trummell $5,000 to rewrite an ordinance that had kept him from building a new house of prostitution at the south end of Pahrump. Trummell was working as an FBI informant, and the meetings and phone conversations she secretly recorded made the government's case. In March 2009, Richards pleaded guilty to one of the charges as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that spared him prison time. It took county regulators more than a year to hold a hearing on his future in the brothel business. He was fined $50,000 but allowed to keep his licenses. By then, he already had sold two of his three bordellos to Hof. Reno wedding chapel owner and brothel industry lobbyist George Flint said the business has lost a link to its early days, when houses of prostitution were tolerated but not regulated the way they are now in 10 Nevada counties, excluding the state's population centers of Clark and Washoe. "Everybody is a little traumatized by that," Flint said of Richards' decision to cash out. "They just can't believe it." "He had the first brothel license ever issued by Nye County," said Tony DeMeo, the county's sheriff. "He actually had brothel license No. 1." Flint considers Richards a close friend and "very special human being." "I'm sorry more people haven't gotten to know the man as I have," he said. DeMeo said he wishes Richards well in his retirement from the legal sex trade. "Outside of his conviction on the federal charge, he really never caused that much trouble," the sheriff said. Don't tell that to Trummell, who now holds a government job in Washington, D.C. She has complained before about threats and verbal attacks -- some anonymous, others printed in Richards' weekly newspaper in Pahrump -- on her and her family for their public stand against the brothel business. Allowing Richards to leave on his own terms is merely the latest insult. "In my opinion, the Nye County commissioners violated the public's trust by allowing a pimp who confessed to public corruption to continue operating and holding him up as an example of an 'upstanding citizen,' " Trummell said. "I hope the county commissioners who supported Richards after his confession don't continue to have such a flippant attitude about public corruption. However, I haven't seen any change to the commission that gives me a lot of confidence." LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

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